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Time--2017 A to Z Theme

My theme for the 2018 Blogging from A to Z April Challenge is "Cleaning the Clutter"--I might literally be cleaning my closets or figuratively clearing the excess from some other part of my life. I'm sure you can think of other things this could mean for you as well.

Always a work in progress--welcome to my blog...

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Friday, February 17, 2012

It Sounded Good On Paper: Soap On A Rope

Back when I was in high school--this would have been about 1968--I was looking through my mother's Avon catalog and saw this incredible product they called "Soap on a Rope". Now how cool is that! I'd say most of you have seen this product and it is still available from various outlets. I know because I have a bar of it.

Now I'm not going to comment except in passing about soap on a rope being something you'd see men using in prison. This soap is not as cheap as regular soap so I don't think prisoners with limited funds would be buying this product and for that matter I don't whether the prison commissaries would even make this available. But I really have no idea and I don't guess I really want to know that badly.

Some of the product advertising I've seen for soap on a rope tout it as being good for elderly folks or people with physical disabilities. I can understand the point they're making about this, but I wonder if that market is very widespread.

I have a tendency to believe that soap on a rope is mostly a novelty item for dopes like me. For that brief period in high school I became a soap on a rope dope. Yeah, my mother bought me the soap and I used it until it was gone. But the fact was that I couldn't cope with being a soap on a rope dope. It was kind of weird soap to use actually.

That was the only bar of soap on a rope that I recall ever having until a few years ago when my wife gave me this gift set from Macy's that included various men's toiletry items. The soap was one of the freebies that came with the primary product which was cologne and after shave.

My wife loves it when Macy's has those specials when they throw in a bunch of free gifts. I'm sure most of you ladies out there know what I'm talking about. You should see all the various sorts of carry bags and pouches she has. And I got some soap on a rope.

So I took my soap on a rope and hung it on the wall next to the medicine cabinet. It's like a peculiar piece of art that most people never see. I don't even see it most of the time--or I guess maybe I just take it for granted since it's been there for so long.

Occasionally I might accidentally hit it when I'm opening the medicine cabinet and then it just kind of swings there like a pendulum without a clock. When that happens I usually pause for a moment to look at the soap still wrapped in plastic like Laura Palmer (an obscure reference that some may recognize). Then I'll forget about it until the next time I think about it.

According to one source I found, soap on a rope first came about in the mid-1800s. Then in 1949 the product was reintroduced by the company that makes English Leather men's cologne. Oh yeah, I've got a bottle of that stuff that's been sitting around for probably longer than I've had the soap on a rope. Where'd that come from anyway? I'll have to do a post about English Leather some other time I guess.

So anyway, I guess soap on a rope gets a periodic revival from companies who think it's a cool idea and then new dopes develop soap on a rope hopes. Or they get it free in some gift set or somebody gives it to them as a gag gift.

Soap on a rope doesn't seem all that practical to me. But it does make for kind of a unique wall-hanging.

Lee - THIS is how I want to start every morning. Uncontrollable giggles at 5:40 am MST. You should impersonate Dave Barry - cuz you're that funny as proven by the fact that a post about a dude who's a dope with a soap on a rope chooses humor to cope with the stress (of this scope) while giving other hope that they too can cope. Love ya' man!

LOL Soap on a Rope, Man do I remember that. My creepy aunt had one haging on her bathroom door. She used it an air freshener. And I love the reference to Twin Peaks and Laura Palmer. I so obsessed with that show.

Annalisa -- So is this direct knowledge from when the show first aired? Do you remember the show promos where Jack Nance says "...wrapped in plastic" in reference to Laura Palmer's body. What a great show!

Jabblong-- I once got a bottle of Russian Leather. Maybe it's all the same stuff with different names.

Alex -- Maybe that's why they seal it in plastic wrap.

Talli -- If you look hard enough I think you could find it. I know it's available on the internet.

Tina -- Glad to have started your day off like that. I think.

Anna -- Oooh! Darth Vader soap may be destined to become a collectible.

Ciara -- I'm sure soap on a rope has it's practical uses.

Delores -- Or one of those sounds good on paper type of thoughts. I've bought many things like that.

Dezmond -- I would imagine that Avon is older than me. They've been around for awhile. I have several bottles of shower gel but I haven't gotten used to using it.Banner was created by A to Z co-host Jeremy from Retro-Zombie.

Richard -- If Andy Warhol ever did paint soap on a rope, I wonder if he painted it more than once and in different colors.

Madeline -- Your knowledge of the Laura Palmer reference says that you have good taste in weird TV programming.

Kirsten -- Sounds like the CrackerJack version of soap--a prize in every bar.

Melissa -- I was a huge fan of Twin Peaks. Then again I like all things David Lynch.

Matthew YW-- Some of those novelty soaps on ropes are probably never really intended for practical use. One might start a collection of the themed soaps.

Liza -- Woolworth's--that's a blast from the past. Funny, I was just reminiscing with someone yesterday about that great store.

Suze -- And you have a way of making me feel flattered. Thank you for that kind comment.

There actually was a practical side to the soap on a rope. (Above and beyond the one you alluded to in the prison setting.) If the soap is hanging on a hook, it doesn't get all mushy and slimy in the soap dish. And English Leather? Mmmmm, my favorite scent from yesteryear. When my husband was in Vietnam, I'd put a dab of his cologne on my pillowcase at night. English Leather, of course.

Whenever I see soap on a rope I always think of Jerry Seinfeld saying, "What's the point of soap on a rope? Incase you're in the shower and you want to hang yourself? Why is it so popular...because it rhymes? You don't see shaving cream on a wooden beam."OMG, I laughed so hard!

I bought a soap on a rope for a friend who was raised in Australia and therefore LIKED spiders... This one was plain white soap, and when you had used it, inside was a black plastic spider. She loved it. I think.

Lee, yes - direct knowledge. Great show, very confusing... And more so for me because it aired between 9 and 10 in the evening, and I babysat until 9.45. So the parents would come home and I wouldn't see the last 10 minutes.

Try watching a confusing show, and not seeing part of the story, every single week!

My Mom sold Avon when I was a kid! I remember round soap on a rope. I remember a lot of jokes and huh moments. Thanks for the time travel back! lolFun post!Thank Lee for all you do and for showing me the ropes, not the soap in regards to blogging. A-Z set me on the path to doing it write ;DI know right. Sometimes I slip up, no can't blame the damn soap, but I try to comment on comments and visit, when life permits~I'm calling my Mom to relive the soap on the rope memories, lol

Hmmm...I was just thinking I might like the old soap on a rope. I love to take baths and you know how sometimes you lose the soap in the tub? Is this too much information? Lol! I could wrap the rope around my wrist and never have to search for my soap again. I have new high hopes for soap on a rope! Thanks for making me laugh this morning, Lee!

Ella -- Glad to have brought back fun memories. You have turned into a blogger par excellence.

Susan -- My kids never gave me any soap on a rope. Once I got a small garden shovel though--we lived in an apartment at the time with no garden so I don't know what that was about, but it was cute though.

LOL. I seem to remember someone in my house had a soap on the rope when I was growing up. Don't remember who. Probably my brother. I also seem to remember giving my husband one of those soaps on a rope with a bunch of other toiletries. I'm sure it was a free add-on to the gift package or something. What a fun post. : )

I like it. It would keep me from having to clean the sludge from the melting soap that sits there. And it's not like you can't use the rope for something else....though I don't know what. Told with a touch of humor. Thanks Arlee Bird!

I like it. It would keep me from having to clean the sludge from the melting soap that sits there. And it's not like you can't use the rope for something else....though I don't know what. Told with a touch of humor. Thanks Arlee Bird!

I never really considered soap on a rope as a practical, in-the-shower type thing, UNTIL I was in my mid teens. My father had this wonderful (for a teenager) apartment that was only about half a block from the beach, and in this apartment was an ever-so-small shower, with no where to put anything unless you put it on the floor and planned to bump your hiney into the wall trying to reach it. It was here that I came to appreciate the soap on a rope most seriously. It could be hung over the crook of the metal shower head for easy access. That's no dope for the soap on a rope!

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A juggler of words and phrases. My main blog is Tossing It Out. The focus blog for the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge can now be found at a-to-zchallenge.com where updates will be posted until the event in April begins.
Wrote By Rote is about memoir writing.
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